Trip Reports – 2012

We had 13 participants on Saturday, and 9 on Sunday. Many thanks to Dennis Burnette for planning the trip. Thanks also to all those ( 8 were photographers!) attending: Salman Abdulali; Dennis, Lynn, and Alisha Burnette; Sven and Ann Halling; Doug Johnston; Judy Mattox; Janie Owens; Sue Perry; Vin Stanton; Bud Webster; Ruth Young. The list below is in Haywood County unless otherwise indicated. Some of the 36 species seen in Haywood were also seen in Buncombe, but those all are common species, so not listed separately. The 3 species seen near Max Patch mountain are noted as Madison county. Six new species were seen in Buncombe. If only one or two seen, those numbers noted. If many seen, estimates given. Those in the group who want to correct my estimates, please feel free to do so.

As I had 24+ Red Admirals on the top half of my road on Friday, the numbers of this species for the wkend. is not surprising.

We had 72 birds for the wkend, with the best sightings a pair of Golden-winged Warblers and several Least Flycatchers. Best heard bird was a possible to probable Connecticut warbler. Sixteen warblers total. Most just heard.

The walk at Murray’s Mill Historic District was offered to Carolina Butterfly Society members and guests who were able to come a day early for the symposium. The weather was sunny, warm and humid just the way butterflies like it. Lori Owenby, Riverbend County Park Ranger, and Gene Schepker were our leaders. In attendance were Lois Schneider, Jim Nottke, Carl Ganser, Caroline Eastman, Jeff Kline, Ray Kandt, Cyndy Hummel, Barbara Driscoll, Carla Oldham, Shirley McCabe, and Dave and Marty Kastner.

Sunday August 5, eight participants: Janie Owens, Ruth Young, Nancy Cowell, Vin Stanton, Sue Perry, Simon Thompson, Doug Johnston, and Gail Lankford; majority of area in Sandy Mush Gamelands. This was our 3rd annual count, all occurring the first week of August. In 2010 we had 52 species, and in 2011 we had 51. So this was our highest count, although still missing some expected species. In the 3 years of the count, we have seen a total of 64 of the 67 possible species. Thanks to Doug Johnston for compiling the numbers. Weather was sunny and humid in 80’s.

While skies were cloudy this morning after yesterday’s heavy rain, the sun appeared about noon and the rest of the day was mostly sunny and in the low 80s, bringing the butterflies out in large numbers, but not of many species. We* covered Allison Woods and part of the Iredell Greenway north of Statesville. Our last butterfly of the day was a Wild Indigo Duskywing, a new species record for the county.

We* had a very good day for counting butterflies for the 7th annual Surry County count; full sun and temperature rising from mid-70s to low 90s with a light breeze. We started counting at the summit parking area of Pilot Mountain State Park (PMSP) at 9:30am, then the field across from the PMSP entrance, the Denny Farm and nearby roadsides, the River Section of PMSP, and finishing at 5:00pm at Horne Creek Farm (HCF). The two butterfly “magnets” today were a blooming mimosa tree on Shoals Road, and the apples on the ground at the HCF orchard. We added one new species to the county record.

Count Day, Wednesday, August 15, began completely overcast and 61 degrees. We really did not begin to see butterflies until noon. Many thanks to Janie Owens, Lynn Smith, Nancy Cowal, Doug Johnston, Vin Stanton, and Bud Webster for coming out to count.

The second ever Rockingham County butterfly count was held on 8/23/12 with clear skies and temperatures ranging from 75-88 degrees. Eight observers in three parties tallied a whopping 50 species and 1839 butterflies. Three butterflies topped over 200 individuals: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 224, Carolina Satyr 208 and Sachem topping all with 291…at least!

Two species were new to the county and the park area: Hayhursts Scallopwing at the Dan River access and Wild Indigo Duskywing at the north river section.

Nectar was a small fraction of what it was last year, but I credit three groups and working hard to find our massive numbers. Some Thistle, Tickseed Sunflower, Joe Pye Weed, Common Milkweed, Ironweed, Mountain Mint, Sweet Pea, Split Butterfly Pea, Heal-all, Red Clover, White Clover, Elephants foot, Butterfly Weed and Lantana.

Misses were same as last year: Harvester, Red-banded Hairstreak, any Cloudywing, Horace’s Duskywing and Common Sootywing. We also missed any broken dash after finding 21 Southern and a whopping 29 Northerns last year!?!?

Well – we got mostly lucky with the weather, picking the first day after a lot of cloudy and often rainy weather. That didn’t stop passing storms around 8 am and also around 4 pm, but otherwise it was warm and partly cloudy. Because of drought, this count had not been run in 2010 or 2011. This year, there has been plentiful rainfall, but the numbers of individuals still seems depressed a bit, owing to the drought (we struggled with “large orange” butterflies and several skippers). But, we had 7 observers, so I split the circle up into 3 parties, and that made a big difference, as we got 54 species, I think a record. (I need to make an Excel table and include all of the previous counts, so I’ll know what is new to the count, what is a record count, etc.) Thanks to John Fussell, Jack Fennell, Salman Abdulali, Carl Ganser, Jeff Pippen, and Will Cook for helping out. In fact, I only added one species to the list that they collectively missed; I took the relatively bland southwestern part of the circle/forest.

Four observers covered approximately 2.5 miles of trails at Cypress Gardens near Moncks Corner, SC. It was partly cloudy, 89 degrees F. The walk lasted from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. We observed many mosquitoes in the woods, especially Psorophora ferox. Butterflies observed were:

Yesterday (Sept. 8), Tom Stock came down from Maryland to join Salman Abdulali and me to run the 6th mainland Dare County, NC, count, but the first since 2006. The weather was warm, but breezy and a bit cloudier than expected. And, we did OK once we found un-mowed mistflower. We only worked about 1-2 miles of dirt roads, not the usual coverage of the circle. And, we quit at 3:00 to make our long drives home in daylight before the storms hit. Our main purpose was to see and photograph wetland skippers, and we were successful on that regard.

The Carolina Butterfly Society held its final scheduled trip of the season with the Midlands Chapter of the South Carolina Native Plant Society on Edisto Island on October 6th and 7th. On October 6th we began around 2:00 and looked for butterflies on the island until around 4:30 when we just had to go to the beach for a swim. On Sunday, October 7th we explored Botany Bay. Ellen Blundy was our leader and our hostess as well since we all spent the night at her home on Edisto Beach. In attendance were Wayne Grooms, Kathy Boyle, Louise Womble, Linda Lee and Dave and Marty Kastner. The first numbers below are from places on Edisto Island including some from SC Highway 174 on the way in. The second number is from Botany Bay. Although the group split up around noon on Sunday, Dave and I continued to count butterflies until 4:30. Not everyone saw the numbers posted, but Dave and I did. It was a remarkable and memorable weekend. We could tell that the Gulf Fritillaries were definitely migrating south as we saw one after another in a direct southerly flight. Many butterflies including some of the Gulf Fritillaries were enjoying nectar from Verbesina virginica (identified by our Native Plant folks). The plant seemed to be everywhere at Botany Bay and was always covered with butterflies! We counted 2,601 butterflies at Botany Bay alone! That’s definitely a new one day record for Dave and me!